A provisional framework for analysing relationships between social innovation and digital technologies Title: A provisional framework for analysing relationships between social innovation
and energy efficient technologies (including digital technologies such as open source energy management systems). Conversely digital technologies can be viewed as integral components of the social innovative configurations that work.
first, communities developing open source technologies to support more sustainable consumption practices (e g. Open Energy Monitor;
and secondly, online free reuse communities (e g. Freecycle and A provisional framework for analysing relationships between social innovation
ipad and ipod touch http://www. doingbusiness. org/specialfeatures/iphone Doing Business 2015 Spain 92
and open hardware, can potentially serve collective action and awareness. However, today it stills fail to deliver anticipated solutions to tackle large-scale problems,
and open hardware projects like Arduino that is recoluzionising open design and manufacturing;(ii) Participatory mechanisms and open democracy featuring new projects pioneering direct democracy
the biggest open source data platform in Europe that is underpinning a new bottom up ecosystem for digital public services;(
and Tor that are using bottom up privacy-preserving decentralised infrastructure for the open Internet constituted by open standards, open data, free and open software,
and open hardware. Other projects are exploring the potential of federated social networking, such as D-CENT and Diaspora,
open hardware and open data infrastructures. The selected organizations have been classified into four types: Different typology of organisations (e g.
The main technological trends the organisations and their activities fit under (open data, open networks, open knowledge, open hardware;
including the types of technologies underpinning DSI services that combine novel technology trends such as distributed networks, knowledge co-production platforms, open data, open hardware, open content,
and open source software. Crowd-Mapping DSI organisations and their activities: The types of organisations working on DSI in Europe,
crowd-mapping, open hardware, open distributed networking, and open knowledge creation to bring people together to solve social challenges, large and small.
In particular grassroots communities of civic innovators, web entrepreneurs, hackers, geeks, SMES, open source and DIY makers,
and open hardware, can potentially serve collective action and awareness. However, today it still fails to deliver anticipated solutions to tackle large-scale problems.
knowledge and hardware not only provide tools for people to collaborate in virtual space but also facilitate the formation and diffusion of novel collaborative solutions offline in the real world.
contents, software, and data, such as enhancing public domain and making digital contents and information more accessible and reusable by all citizens.
open source and open hardware developments), leveraging social networks (or distributed social networking, sensor networks and the Internet of things,
the main technological trends the organisations and their activities fit under (open data, open networks, open knowledge, open hardware;
Database and Dynamic Visualisations will be shared back with the relevant open source communities. Open data about the mapping of organisations include:
Low-cost home 3d manufacturing tools (3d printers, CNC machines), free CAD/CAM software like Blender, 123d or Sketchup and open source designs are now giving innovators
Recycle are becoming the keywords of the Open Hardware and Makers movement, which implies a combination of different design and technology methods, such as fast prototyping,
The Open Hardware is the backbone of the sharing economy, since it shifts the attention away from consumption and resource exploitation,
The open hardware movement in particular is about how you share knowledge, skills and tools, and how you build communities around your open products.
People working on Open source Hardware are creating new organisations such as the Open source Hardware Association, to open new research avenues and coordinate projects,
open source cars such as Wikispeed, building farming tools, new fabrication machines like the Reprap and open objects.
These products are open source and free; and you can use, copy and improve as much as you want with a worldwide community of peers helping you
Projects like Open source Ecology are promoting a bigger shift towards a more sustainable lifestyle and society.
Interesting trends are emerging at the intersection between open hardware DIY culture, open source software and open data.
Projects like Safecast or open source Geiger, the Smart Citizen Kit, and open wearables are showing interesting potential in combining innovative technology trends to generate unexpected outcomes.
Technological driven developments such as sensor networks and open data connected with a sustainable user-centric design can support organisations and individuals in addressing challenges of the future. 3. Participatory mechanisms, feedback,
and Tor are using bottom-up privacy-preserving decentralised infrastructure for the open Internet constituted by open standards, open data, free and open software,
and open hardware. Finally, Github the collaborative service for open software developers is revolutionising the way code is built
shared and maintained by a variety of projects around the globe. Important development to re-decentralise the Net,
Status. net or easy-to run servers like arkos, which makes it easy to run your own secure cloud,
These kinds of projects are able to combine open hardware technologies with new learning methods to experiment with new educational practices,
Hardware Safecast Raspberry Pi Fablab Amsterdam Iot Council Arduino Smart Citizen Kit Fairphone Makerfaire New ways of making Participatory mechanisms Sharing economy Awareness networks Open Access 28 Who are involved the organisations in supporting
and expanding communitiesdemocratizing access to emerging technologiessmart Citizen Kittorchaos Computer Clubtable 5 29 The spread of organisation types across organisations on the map are represented in Table 6
The work by Your Priorities in Iceland and Open Ministry in Finland on bringing DSI to the core of government by crowdsourcing legislation is another.
and the organisation behind Github, the collaborative service for open software writers. Academia and research institutions Universities and other research-driven organisations such as think thanks,
Arduino, the open hardware circuit board was developed, for example, originally by students at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII) in Italy.
Chaos Computer Club (CCC), Europe's largest network of Hackers, is the most prominent example of grassroots communities coming together to develop
the club also fights for free access to computers and technological infrastructure for everybody. The latest gathering of the CCC in 2012 in Hamburg, Germany, brought together 6,
organized by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC)( GE), an informal association of hackers from across Europe.
The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) hosts the annual Chaos Communication Congress, the largest hacker congress in Europe.
semi-open spaces with clusters of tables and Internet connections for groups and individuals to collaborate and socialise in projects, workshops, hands-on talks, panels.
and 3d printing facilities (often referred to as maker and hacker spaces), for digital fabrication and hacking data that entrepreneurs can access freely.
a Maker space with a focus on open source, design, digital fabrication, and micro enterprises. An example of increasing interest is the possibility of setting up Urban Labs within city contexts.
open source and open access Goteo Communia Open hardware new ways of making and using open hardware solutions
and moving towards and Open source Internet of things Arduino Smart Citizen Kit Safecast Table 9 36 Through case study analysis we have sought to build up an understanding of to what extent these emerging technologies are being harnessed by digital social innovation.
It is likely that we will begin to identify additional types of technology. Below we provide a more detailed description of how these trends can be defined,
Safecast, for example relied on Open Hardware to build the first Geiger counter sensor kit, on crowdfunding (open knowledge) to fund the development of kit
and digital services adopted by DSI activities such as social networking, social media, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, big data, machine learning, 3d printing, online learning,
A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) consists of spatially distributed wireless sensors to monitor physical conditions, such as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion or pollutants,
Most European cities work with sensors that monitor environmental conditions. Pollution temperature, humidity and light sensors are installed that provide information that could be used to develop applications for citizens
computer-friendly formats for anyone to download, use, and analyse, as long as the privacy and data protection of all citizens is preserved
It then invited programmers and developers to make apps and web services based on the data,
boosting the diffusion of open data is the Mobile Internet and the increasing number of mobile devices.
tablets, PDAS and other devices are becoming smaller, faster, smarter, more networked and personal. An unlocked Android phone with touch screen, Wifi and GPS that sold for $300 four years ago now costs $30,
a price that is continuing to drop. As they proliferate, mobile devices are generating ever-larger streams of personal behavioural data that have many potentially valuable public, personal and commercial uses.
Data-flows are also burgeoning as the Internet of things integrates a vast universe of network aware sensors, actuators, video cameras,
and knowledge to a social network of peers living with similar conditions. 40 Open Hardware Open source hardware consists of hardware
and sell the design or hardware based on that design. The hardware's source, the design from which it is made,
is available in the preferred format for making modifications to it. Ideally, open source hardware uses readily available components and materials, standard processes, open infrastructure
unrestricted content, and open-source design tools to maximize the ability of individuals to make and use hardware.
Open source hardware gives people the freedom to control their technology while sharing knowledge and encouraging commerce through the open exchange of designs.
The work by organisations like Raspberry Pi and Arduino illustrates the potential in open hardware.
Core to Arduino is a simple, ultra-low-cost circuit board, based on an open-source design, armed with a microprocessor,
which can be programmed with simple, open-source software tools by the user. The idea is that anyone should be able to turn an Arduino into a simple electronic device.
Building on these open hardware platforms new services like the Smart Citizen Kit, an Arduino based sensor kit have the opportunity to provide even more sophisticated sensor network tools to citizens,
and allow for the measurement of levels of air pollution, noise pollution or air humidity in the vicinity of a private home, school or office.
Another big trend related to open hardware is the evolution of the Internet of things (Iot. People, places,
Activity is embedded then in software and interpreted by algorithms through highly normative processes. This smart infrastructure is also increasingly getting to know people by aggregating personal and social data in massive data centres with little privacy and security.
Cloud computing as a virtualisation infrastructure that offers unique opportunities to reduce the costs of delivering services over the Internet,
or open knowledge vs. open hardware communities). How Digital social innovation happens The role of noninstitutional actors
In general, European funding has invested heavily in core European institutions in terms of digital innovation, in particular the formerly nationalised telecommunications companies as well as national research institutes and traditional universities.
i e. institutions that have arisen during the rise of the Internet itself. 46 This is precisely why telecommunications companies must reinvent themselves in the presence of new, digitally native companies such as Skype and Google.
Microsoft who now increasingly dominate premier academic conferences such as the World wide web Conference. The institutional infrastructure necessary for cutting-edge research no longer requires state investment,
and in fact, private institutions have near-monopolies over social networks and search engine data, giving them nearly exclusive access to the data
the open hardware approach means that products developed by one part of the community are accessible for all other Arduino users,
open hardware)- What impact they have (what domains, what reach)- We just develop a more compelling visualisation of organisational information
public funding) and investors Future development tasks Code and data Full information on the development so far and open source code can be found on the Github page here:
Open Networks, Open Knowledge, Open Hardware DSI activities: A network, Operating a DSI service Key facts:
http://arduino. cc/Organisation Name Arduino Short description The core to an Arduino is a simple, ultra-low-cost circuit board, based on an open-source design, armed with a microprocessor
which can be programmed with simple, open-source software tools by the user. The idea is that anyone should be able to turn an Arduino into a simple electronic device such as a light switch and sensor.
an Italian engineer and designer, started the Arduino project to enable students at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII) build all kinds of electronic contraptions using an open-source hardware board.
The software consists of a standard programming language compiler and a boot loader that executes on the micro controller.
The project first started with 3, 000 euros for the production of 200 units, but when IDDI bought only 50 units,
Arduino has grown since to become popular selling around 200,000 units in 2011 largely because of its creators'decision to make the board's design open source and its quick adoption by hobbyists, artists, scientists, and‘makers.'
Arduino is a key player in the international maker movement of D. I. Y. hardware hobbyists and tinkerers.
The arrival of Arduino is said to mark the move from open-source software to open-source hardware.
Furthermore, Arduino has lowered significantly the economic barriers to D. I. Y. electronics thanks to the product's low cost and open source business model.
This is an example of how student scientists are using Arduino-based hardware to replicate scientific equipment using more readily available components in developing countries.
Various educational and innovative projects and products have been built on the back of Arduino's hard and software.
or they can communicate with software running on a computer (e g. Flash, Processing, Maxmsp. 59 The boards can be built by hand
and the software can be downloaded for free. The hardware reference designs (CAD files) are available under an open-source license,
and users are free to adapt them to their needs. While the hardware used to power Arduino is open-source,
Arduino software is also open-source. The source code for the Java environment is released under the GPL
and the C/C++ micro controller libraries are licensed under the LGPL. What technological methods and tools is it using,
'Arduino has in many senses heralded a paradigm shift from open-source software alone to open-source hardware.
Correspondingly, Arduino's low economic threshold has removed a lot of potential barriers to users previously excluded from getting involved in D. I. Y. hardware
and robotics the availability of Arduino hardware design blueprints for download has meant users who ordinarily might not have been able to afford
one of these Arduino@Heart is the Smart Citizen Kit a hardware kit to gather environmental data,
and software for the Arduino board. Arduino design plans can thus be downloaded and manufactured by anyone;
because the Arduino board is a piece of open source hardware, free for anyone to use,
Many questioned if it would be possible to forge a sustainable business model considering the entire basis for Arduino relies upon open source technologies (in fact,
Creative Commons Licensing Arduino release all of the original design files (Eagle CAD) for the Arduino hardware.
Open source Software Not only the Arduino hardware is open; the Arduino software is also open-source. The source code for the Java environment is released under the GPL
and the C/C++ micro controller libraries are under the LGPL. 61 Avaaz At a glance:
Open Networks, Open Knowledge, Open Hardware DSI activities: Operating a DSI service Key facts: Approximately 28 Million Users Worldwide.
'History and core mission Avaaz which literally means voice in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages launched in 2007 with a simple democratic mission:‘
is served by a small core team of 52 full-time staff worldwide, has thousands of volunteers in all 192 UN member states,
and includes a physical server farm, a content distribution network, and some resources served through Amazon's cloud services.
Croscon (who perform ongoing security audits of the site's servers) and Arbor networks (who provided defensive hardware
which helped fend off the attack) all supported the organisation throughout the attack, Avaaz were advised to further upgrade their IT SECURITY in the event of similar future attacks.
and the open source platform is available free of charge to any group, city or country around the world interested in using the platform to source ideas from citizens.
where the city uses the platform to source ideas from citizens to be debated in the city council on a monthly basis. Type of Organisation The Your Priorities software is open source
Through making the Your Priorities platform available as open source to other organisations, the Citizens Foundation is actively facilitating the easy spread and uptake of their new service.
Open source and Open Collaboration: The platform is open source and free for anyone to download and use,
which has led to the spread of the model via the Internet beyond Iceland. Open Active Democracy is the software that powers Your Priorities.
As well as being made available on Github so that like-minded civic hackers can contribute to and improve this coding,
As a nonprofit organisation, donated funds ensure continual development and maintenance of the Your Priority software.
The user interface has been simplified in every generation of the software to enable more people to participate more easily.
Open Network, Open Data, Open Hardware, Open Knowledge DSI activities: A Network Key facts: Citysdk consist of 23 partners, 9 countries, 3 open source APIS Website:
http://www. citysdk. eu/Organisation Name City Service Development Kit (Citysdk) Short description City SDK is a European consortium of partners helping cities
For each of those domains, an open software API is developed in one of the participating cities or regions,
At the same time it provides cities with an easy, open source, standards based way to publish real-time open Data type of organisation Citysdk is a European Consortium consisting of 23 partners in nine countries,
such as the Greater manchester Realtime Scheduling application, the Park Shark City Platform and the City Navigator, a fully Open source, mobile HTML5 public transport journey planner and navigation application for on the go-go use.
Open source Software, which enables the uptake and extension of the software by the development community forgoing stifling discussions on IP and closed development silos Open Data,
as it builds software to publish Linked Open Data in standardised formats that enables app developers to make royalty-free applications that scale Open API's,
that provide a nonproprietary way for data-owners to publish (real-time) datasets use those in applications Agile Software Development, by way of SCRUM tools and methodologies Next to these,
standards are used like GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) and Open 311, and languages like JSON and RDF API's written in Ruby and Sinatra.
video conferences and Google docs for communication and Github to share code and specifications. Citysdk itself would not have been possible even five years ago.
DSI network effect Through the apps and services it is developing Citysdk aim is to build smart services where user generated data make up the core activity of the service.
Open source DSI activities: Operating a DSI service, Network Key facts: As part of the project the consortia developed Europe commons, a catalogue of applications with demonstrable impact Website:
Code for America involved‘a new type of public service based on the work of volunteer programmers that has sought to building bridges between the public and new technologies.'
'The overarching Commons4eu project focuses on networked collaborative projects for use online and with mobile devices, based on the experience of Code for America,
History and Mission The Commons 4 EU project was started in 2011 with an initial core team of 7 cities:
It simultaneously taps into current technological trends such as open data, open source, as well as digital volunteerism (crowdsourcing), in a way that has a clear social impact.
the aim was to also develop a reusable IT open source solution. In the Berlin State Museums alone six million objects await to be recorded.
This flexible approach to technology is reflected in the wide range of technologies employed by the different fellows who will work with their own preferred web platform (using open source languages like 83 Python
and sharing of open source code. To this aim, the fellows work together on a joint Github account
In the case of Europe Commons the site's open source coding is hosted on Drupal. org,
While collaborative coding tools such as Github have challenged somewhat the often asocial aspect of software coding,
The project brings in additional users (researchers) with a common entry point and additional resources (nodes, servers, links) in sparsely populated areas.
community networks are built often with simple and low cost off-the-shelf hardware. The nodes are usually running an open source distribution
such as Linux (Openwrt) or Freebsd. A Community-Lab node consists of two or three devices:
the community device, the research device and an optional recovery device to force the research device to reboot in case of malfunction.
The project has also set up http://opendata. confine-project. eu/using the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN) 23 software.
community networks are built often with simple low cost off-the-shelf hardware. The characteristics of heterogeneity, required network neutrality, openness and size of these networks are a great challenge to routing protocols and their implementation on low-cost devices.
These services face enormous challenges due to the limited capacity of servers and links 93 and the structure of the network.
Open networks, Open data, Open knowledge, Open hardware DSI activities: Research project, network, operating web service providing education & training Key facts:
and information presentation to users by means of mobile and web-based devices such as smartphones, computers and sensors.
The overarching aim of the Everyaware platform is to develop an integrated hard and software platform
A central server efficiently collects, analyses and visualises data sent from arbitrary sources. The Everyaware platform will handle both sensor and subjective data acquisition.
It will host a modular system based on two hardware components: a smartphone controlling the data acquisition and a modular sensor box with several pluggable sensors.
and Android app that helps people to understand the soundscape around and to help live a healthier life.
Sensorbox, Airprobe, a dedicated Web server and Web application, together form a system that measures concentrations of pollutants in the air and localises them through a GPS.
Along with sensors, human beings can act as a probe to monitor many phenomena, especially in the environmental area.
computer scientists and sociologists have reached already the maturity to analyse, interpret and visualize complex data sets.
Open Networks, Open Hardware, Open Knowledge DSI activities: A network, hosting makerspace/hackerspace, providing education & training Key facts:
Fablab Amsterdam is also part of a global network of standardised open hardware setups. Type of organisation Fablab Amsterdam is part of the international Fablab community (there are now Fablabs in most parts of the world, from inner-city Boston through to rural India, South africa and the North of Norway.
Fablab Amsterdam uses digital fabrication to create an open hardware environment, and builds an open network based on that, in
The digital fabrication include machines such as, Laser cutter, Milling machine, Vinyl Cutter, Embroidery Machine, 3d printer, Thermal Cycler, Microscope, Centrifuge, Spectrometer, Incubator, Autoclave, Rotary
The network also makes it possible for people to attend the Fab Academy from all over the world. 108 Open Hardware and Open philosophy:
and is based on open source design and open hardware such as Arduino. One example of this is Alignment laser,
Before the Fablab people with a DIY interest wouldn't have been able to access the technology and machines in the lab such as 3d printers and laser cutters.
The free or low cost access to open source hard and software means that Fablab communities both benefit from
and contribute to the value of these, which benefits a global DIY community using the same open tools.
Open Hardware, Open Knowledge DSI activities: product and research Key facts: 25,000 phones sold in less than 6 months. 50,000 followers on Facebook.
This open approach extends to plans for the phone itself and the software, although there is some way to go on this. 114 How is funded the organisation?
https://github. com/Organisation Name Github Short description Github, a San francisco-based company, was started in 2008 as a way for open source software writers in various locations to rapidly create new
to build better software together. Source code management was historically a particularly asocial (and sometimes antisocial) practice.
and code management for open source and private projects, by tapping into this community of collective coders.
the creator of Linux. Over time, Github's mission evolved from offering a paradigm 116 shift in the way programmers had coded largely in isolation to something more.
Since then the platform has gone through a rapid development and is now largest social coding repository in the world with more than 9. 8 million repositories.
At its simplest Github can be described as open source tool for people to come together online and collaborate around a project,
in the majority of cases the projects people use Github to collaborate around are code for websites and software solutions.
because the code is open source). This enables a developer to copy a code that he
Homebrew a platform used by developers to make code run more smoothly with the MAC OS was the most heavily trafficked project on Github in 2012.
Instances of Github can be licensed to run on private servers inside a company's firewall under the Enterprise plans ($5000/year/20 seats.
'This plan enables clients to download a version of Github to live locally on their servers,
Enterprise clients include Lockheed martin, Microsoft, Livingsocial, VMWARE and Walmart. Another revenue stream is Github Jobs where employers can post job offers for $450/listing.
Overall the‘open source'culture of Github translates into their business model in one particularly obvious way:
programmers or companies can use the collaborative platform for free as a place to build open-source software,
a platform set up with the aim of helping governments become more open source, open data, and open government.
This portal is aimed specifically at helping governments all over the world to open source datasets, legislation and information so that citizen programmers can help solve local problems.
What technological methods and tools is it using, and what did these enable that was not previously possible?
Github uses Git, a multi-platform version control application created for use by developers of the Linux kernel,
Though developed for software code, any types of files can be part of a Github repository,
and Lilypond music notation software files) can take advantage of Git's version tracking and merging features.
As the system of record for software, it is natural that the rest of the software development ecosystem (bug trackers, project management,
and will result in better quality software. Github has remodelled how programmers engage with Source code Management (SCM) a fundamental tool for programmers, that stores,
versions and branches source code being developed by teams of programmers. While traditionally SCMS have been a highly complex,
esoteric and cumbersome systems to manage; they have also been notably asocial in their nature.
Because modern programming tends to be about assembling code in the form of libraries, open source work,
In essence this people-centred approach to programming has meant Github has become a social networking site for programmers.
and merge software code, this same logic can be applied to any types of files that make up the Github repository,
what was closed in the past a, asocial aspect of software coding. By making its coding repository far more transparent,
or register for barely usable software before they too can get involved, etc. What were the main barriers to innovate?
Open source vs. Closed: While Github has stood out as an outrider of how e-businesses might operate in an open-source landscape;
(i e. a series of tests designed to test a software program has specified a set of behavior),
http://goteo. org/Organisation Name Goteo Short description Goteo. org is an open source social network for crowdfunding as well as distributed collaboration based in Spain.
'Type of organisation Goteo is managed by the nonprofit organisation Fundacion Fuentes Abiertas (Open source Foundation. History and mission The explicit mission of Goteo. org is to help finance
when Platoniq (a collective of cultural activists, open source practitioners and Internet researchers) came together to explore initiatives for giving monetary support online to different people and causes with a social purpose.
The aim of the exercise was to understand how compatible crowdfunding was with crowdsourcing lessons learned from the open source world.
free knowledge and/or open source. Unlike most other crowdfunding platforms Goteo operate with two funding windows for a campaign, each with a duration of 40 days.
it also succeeded in attracting support from developers, a hacklab space for working, a 3d printer for prototyping, volunteer testers for their prototype solutions,
A core criteria for Goteo is that all campaigns the platform helps have to meet a cultural, scientific, educational, technological or ecological objective.
'Therefore projects are built on collaborative, open source and open design principles. As an example the Infinit Loop cloth mentioned above is built for example with an open design license.
and software standards developed by and for the open source community, such as creative commons to set the standard for how campaigns launched on the platform should use
and open hard and software solutions to develop their products. The Nodo Móvil project campaign is built,
for example on the Arduino Open Hardware board. Other projects, like the Tuderechoasaber an online platform for accessing
printing and office supplies; website fees; travel expenses and Welsh translation services. Recently, Landshare. net has decided to run a trial to test the inclusion of some‘contextual advertising'to help pay for the continued development and maintenance of its website.
http://liquidfeedback. org/Organisation Name Liquid Feedback Short description Liquid feedback is free open source software
Developed by the Public Software Group based in Berlin, Germany, the platform combines aspects of representative and direct democracy enabling participants in the platform to both vote directly on issues
Type of organisation The Public Software Group who developed the Liquid Feedback software is a not-for-profit organisation based in Berlin, Germany.
History and mission The Liquid Feedback software was published first in October 2009 by Public Software Group.
The software was used first by Germany's Pirate Party that same year, and has, amongst others,
However the developers are fully independent from the users of the software. The Liquid Feedback software is published under an open MIT license
and free for anyone or any organisation to download and use. 130 At the core of Liquid Feedback sit an ambition to create a platform that addresses the gap between representative democracies where people elect representatives to represent
and vote for them on policy decisions and direct democracy, where one person equals one vote.
The basic activity of Public Software is to make the Liquid Feedback software freely available to organisations interested in using the platform to create a more deliberative process around shaping
Finally, and on a more general level, Liquid Feedback is built on an open source licence. The rationale for this is that everyone interested in adopting the platform to their organisation should be able to do so freely.
Finally, the open source approach, as described above, allows the platform to be adapted by organisations that are both diverse in type and their geographical base.
Open networks, Open hardware DSI activities: Organising an event Key facts: 165,000 people attended the two flagship Maker Faires in in 2012.30,000 people attended the Rome 2013 Mini Maker Faire Website:
Topics and areas include electronics, 3d printing, technological product demo, design, craft, sustainability and domestic arts,
For example the event featured demonstrations on the DIY opportunities in the Arduino open source electronic board and Raspberry Pi.
social networks, crowdsourcing and 3d printing, and the benefit of participating in such open innovation environments for DIY product designers.
Lots of products or projects that will be shown in Maker Faire have a strong focus on using digital social innovation technology such as open hardware,
Attendees at Makerfaire showcase and work on a wide range of soft and hardware, some of the most popular and frequent of these include open hardware such as Arduino micro controller and personal 3d printing.
Several advantages of open source hardware show its importance to the Maker Faire community: Help streamline the design Makers can reduce risk by basing designs on open-source hardware
and taking advantage of a proven design that has operated successfully in the past. Thus, they can work from a known starting point
and easily see what's there, what's missing, and what is unnecessary. It saves development time.
Giving back Open-source hardware is about sharing work with others for everyone's benefit. It is beneficial for all parties to provide upgrades
When a user adds a function to hardware it affects the software, which adds a reason to enhance
and improve the overall performance of the software to take advantage of the new feature. Low cost access open hardware gives grassroots audience the ability to turn their ideas into products or services,
and even build business upon it. There are also many applicable business models for implementing some open-source hardware even in traditional firms.
For example, to accelerate development and technical innovation the photovoltaic industry has experimented with partnerships, franchises, secondary supplier and completely open-source models.
How is funded the organisation? Maker Faire is made possible with a variety of sponsorships. Equally, some mini maker faires are financed partially through charging fees for attending.
Providing consultancy, bespoke software development and software products to organisations keen to meet the expectations of digital natives.
Developing free and open source software for individuals and organisations around the world who want to build copies of the sites mysociety builds.
Some of the most prominent websites and software solutions developed by mysociety are listed below. Fixmystreet-Fixmystreet Platform is built open-source software to help people run websites for reporting common street problems
like potholes and broken street lights. It has been used in many countries around the world, from Norway to New zealand to Georgia to Italy-where versions based on the original UK Fixmystreet website have been built.
& Freedom of Information software',designed for easy reuse in any country or jurisdiction. Citizens can use Alaveteli to request information from governments,
The software created for this purpose is called Pombola. It's free, open source and available for use anywhere in the world.
The core features of this website are: 139 A structured database that links people to places, organisations and roles.
It's an accessible display all of the members of a particular house of parliament, all of the elected representatives of particular areas and even all of the politicians who attended a specific college.
A database of parliamentary transcripts linked to the individual speakers, making it easy to display how often a politician has spoken in parliament and
mysociety's sites are all open source. Some of the mysociety codebases have been worked on extensively to make them easy to use for the newcomer.
Mapit's code is also available on Github, another open source project which can be installed locally,
One of the benefits of mysociety being a digital NGO is that presently software development is globally a relatively lucrative profession.
open source projects without having to employ a huge factory of staff. After recognising in the period following 2006 that official government funding streams had been wound down,
As part of this they began to solicit commercial requests to do software development or consulting. In order to keep this activity within the bounds of UK charities law,
while developing‘a reputation as a software company that can solve problems that more traditional web companies can't.'mysociety Ltd.,
Realities of open source: Before accepting contributions to a project, the practical considerations around the overheads of testing, checking,
To grow the open-source communities around some of their core websites and components so that they are of ever greater value to larger numbers of people.
History and core mission The overarching purpose of Open Ministry is to help citizens and NGOS with national citizens'initiatives
They purport that the peer-learning aspect could be made even stronger through the addition of design elements in the process and on the crowdsourcing hardware.
The Open Ministry website was developed using a YUI API a free, open source Javascript and CSS library for building interactive web applications.
For instance, Pekkanen is a member of the Open Government Partnership committee in Finland, sitting on the Open Knowledge Finland Core Team,
The core business of Opencorporates is to collect data on companies through web scraping tools
Web scraping (web harvesting or web data extraction) is a computer software technique of extracting information from websites.
Open data sit at the core of all Opencorporates work. This is both a tool to scrape,
Open source: Opencorporates wants to make its product and the database accessible and scalable. It would not be possible without a huge number of open source programmes, tools and resources, such as Twitter Bootstrap and Linux.
It is mostly feasible to have the open data database as well as the community accessible online.
Opencorporates is built on the Rubyonrails framework, uses the Mysql and Neo4j databases, on servers running Linux.
when downloaded and installed on a smartphone, laptop, tablet or other compatible device, helps turn the hardware into a router.
Working with similarly equipped devices within a range of approximately 20 meters, the mesh app then discovers,
as well as benefits the handset and tablet manufactures. The Open Garden app is free for anyone to install on his or her smartphone, tablet or computer,
and it also licenses its technology to carriers, device manufacturers and Organisations. For consumers this has the potential to offer:
Open Garden creates an overlay mesh network using Bluetooth and Wi-fi connections across a range of mobile devices, from smartphones to tablets to laptops and desktops.
Web and Software Development: Through developing software OKF are trying to create tools that support a global open knowledge and open data community.
One of the most prominent of these is the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN), one of the world's leading free open source data portal platforms.
CKAN is aimed at data publishers (national and regional governments, companies and organisations) wanting to make their data open and available.
In addition to building software tools for open data the OKFN also seeks to build the open data skills and capacity of governments and civil society organisations,
The open source software is used by more than 70 organisations from Berlin to Nigeria globally to release their data in to open data sets.
Through creating software that can be used to enhance the use of open knowledge, it supports organisations on furthering their work on, for example, open data.
A variety of technologies are being used in Open Knowledge Foundation, mostly web and software development related.
Naturally most of its projects rely heavily on open data, open data and open source standards.
but it also relies on open source platforms for developing and sharing the code for its projects.
Its core activities are focusing on using the web and online technologies to better open
P2p Foundation, Open Knowledge Foundation, Makesense, Edgeryders, Transition Network, Open source Ecology, hackerspaces & makerspaces. What is the social impact it is seeking,
driven by digital fabrication tools like 3dprinters, facilities like Fablabs, open source hardware designs and DIY communities.
in contrast to the centralized client server model where client nodes request access to resources provided by central servers.
in contrast to the centralized client server model where client nodes request access to resources provided by central servers.
bandwidth) directly available to other network participants, without the need for centralized coordination by servers.
its core focus is on furthering advancements in P2p Technology-networks in which interconnected nodes (peers) share resources amongst each other without the use of a centralized administrative system.
Peer-to-peer-based digital currencies, electronic money that acts as alternative currency, such as Bitcoin, an open source P2p money,
A peer-to-peer network is designed around the notion of equal peer nodes simultaneously functioning as both clients and servers to the other nodes on the network.
This model of network arrangement differs from the client server model where communication is usually to and from a central server.
P2p's network in practice creates a platform for‘unbounded knowledge with open sources and open access.'
Are they different according to different core domains? No information available What really helps reach goals/how to overcome these barriers?
The core service of Peerby is the online platform which enables users to borrow and share anything from trumpets to laptop chargers with their neighbours.
Peerby's uniqueness lies in its proactive approach: activity on the platform begins with people posting requests for things they need,
Over 2 Million Organisation Name Raspberry Pi Short Description Raspberry Pi is an ultra-low-cost credit card-sized fully-functioning computer.
a team based at the University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory. The idea behind the Raspberrypi came about as a way to try
and interacting with computers, as the team was concerned about the yearon-year decline in the numbers
and that this change in turn has had the effect of reducing the pipeline of potential computer programmers. 186 The Maker Movement is,
Upton and the Raspberry Pi team sought to develop a tiny, cheap computer for kids
Raspberry Pi is a simple computing device that looks like a motherboard with the mounted chips
only if you opened up your computer and looked at its internal boards). Although seemingly basic in design, it has needed all the components to connect input,
When switched on, users are greeted first by a command line code (which in recent years has tended to remain in the background of closed software programmes),
the Raspberry Pi supports MIT's Scratch platform meaning kids can gain a deeper knowledge of computer game programming by building their own game
Its small size and portability make it suitable for applications that other computers can't reach. 187 It has very low power consumption,
Other than the fact that the demand for the Raspberry Pi computers have exceeded far the team's original predicted figure of 10
These are defined as devices that wrap computing peripherals around a cellphone hardware core; meaning that such devices can be produced for just a few tens of dollars.
For this reason Raspberry Pi computers have already been used as as learning tools in the context of various developing countries such as Afghanistan, Cameroon and Bhutan.
While the UNDP-backed One Laptop Per Child programme demonstrates that more rigorous assessment is needed to verify that the ICT (Information
which included 6 Raspberry Pi's. These have been networked via a switch to a wireless router to facilitate access to RACHEL (one of the Raspberry Pi's dedicated educational servers).
On 18th of November it was announced that over 2m Raspberry Pi computers have been sold globally since going on sale for around £30 in February 2012.
It actively encourages collaborative coding for instance the open source coding for its collaborative project with Google,
and seeks to redress shortfall of computer programmers. What technological method is it using? The Raspberry Pi is based around a 700mhz ARM11 system on chip (SOC) with a powerful graphics co-processor.
Typically this sort of processor was used in mobile phones five years ago. Apart from the graphics processor, which is propriety to Broadcom,
the Raspberry Pi is completely open source, which helps to keep costs down. From the circuit schematics to the applications and the operating system, anyone can examine
and contribute online. The Foundation provides a version of Debian Linux that presents users with a basic text login rather than a slick GUI 188 by default
with the entire operating system and user files stored on a swappable SD card. How has technology enable that was not possible before?
With regard to Raspberry Pi's hardware, the board's low cost was made possible thanks to advances in integration that have shrunk effectively all the components of a desktop computer into a single silicon chip.
Furthermore, thanks to advances in technology, Raspberry Pi, unlike conventional PCS, has very low power consumption.
This means that it work more easily in electrical off-grid environments, making it an ideal device for educational purposes in developing countries, etc.
DSI network effect Due to Raspberry Pi's programmable and simple open source model, a variety of Pi projects have emerged on the Web.
and the Wolfram Language installed into future Rasbian images, making Raspberry Pi devices a first-class platform for teaching computer-based mathematics techniques to children of all ages.
Raspberry Pi has collaborated also recently with Google to deliver a new open source coding tool called Coder.
and then host them on a miniature server located directly on the Raspberry Pi. The overall cost for the DIY programming project, using Google's recommended materials,
plug it into the tiny computer, and connect to a shared Wi-fi to access Coder through Chrome.
and a Wi-fi dongle, allowing for the MP4 lectures that make up the core of Khan academy's material to be brought to areas with poor Internet connectivity.
Open Networks, Open Hardware, Open Data, Open Knowledge DSI activities: An event, A network, Running/hosting maker spaces
http://blog. safecast. org/Organisation Name Safecast Short description Safecast is both the name of a Geiger counter built by the open source community as well as a global sensor network where Safecast owners can map
and software solutions for citizens to contribute to the mapping of radiation levels in Japan following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011.
While the Safecast team along with a wider open source community is providing the hard and software behind Safecast,
designing and developing hardware, building a community, collecting and sharing open data, as well as educating, without input from government.
and developing open hardware and software. Safecast describes itself as not being anti nuclear, or pro nuclear but pro data.
Safecast relies heavily on working on and with several open source hard and software solutions. Open hardware such as Arduino forms part of the actual build of the Geiger counter, crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter have been used to raise funding for developing different versions of the Geiger counter
and open coding platforms such as Github have been used to develop the code behind Safecast. What technological methods and tools is it using,
Open Hardware: The hardware developed by Safecast is open source and, in their own words, people who buy it are free‘to open,
manipulate, hack, break and or improve anything, 'and it uses open hardware such as Arduino in the build of its sensors.
As described earlier it has used Hackathons at Tokyo Hackerspace to design and build devices, such as the bgeigie.
Whilst it has used open hardware and open source approaches to develop the original prototype Geiger counters, Crowdfunding has been crucial in the funding
and scale up of the Geiger counters. Safecast successfully ran campaigns on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter (it raised $36,
Following on from this Safecast has used open source platforms such as Github to develop the code that sits behind the platform.
and open source platforms in many ways can be seen as an example of digitally enabled collective intelligence.
and hardware as well as social media has been instrumental in the success of Safecast. In addition to this, it can be argued that the success of the network was a combination of the identified unmet need,
Open Networks, Open Data, Open Knowledge, Open Hardware DSI activities: A network, operating a web service Key facts:
http://smartcitizen. me/Organisation Name Fablab Barcelona Short description The Smart Citizen Kit is a set of tools (mostly sensors) built on an Arduino open hardware platform.
History and mission There are two core aims of the Smartcitizen projects. Firstly it wants to produce new types of data and information
The Smart Citizen Kit is based on two core components; the‘kit'itself and the platform used to share data between people operating a kit.
The Smart Citizen Kit itself is a an electronic board based on the open hardware solution Arduino,
and their aim with the kit is a focus on the use of digital technology and open hardware for the development of a citizen based platform for the city.
designs and develops open hardware, which is also open source. The team also operates an open network,
where all the sensors and kit-owners can share and compare data and information in real time. On a grander scale,
the Internet and relies on a range of open hard and software tools. Open Hardware:
The Smart Citizen Kit itself is built on the Arduino open hardware board. Open Data and Open source:
The web platform is developed with Open-Streetmap, Leaflet, Raphaël, jquery, Cakephp, and many more. The actual project is open source and available on the open source platform Github.
The fact that it is open has led already to replications of the kit for other purposes,
such as the Whale project, where people placed the sensors in the sea to detect its condition.
The second round of crowdfunding helped the Smart Citizen team achieve their aim of purchasing bulk orders of hardware components to offer kits at the lowest possible costs
developing additional features for the smartphone app to interact with the hardware, and finalizing a 3d-printable, resilient enclosure.
like same important as IBM, otherwise it won't Work on one hand, the project is now slowly by slowly generating more attention,
It has developed software tools designed to stop people including government agencies and corporations learning web users location or tracking their browsing habits.
The software the Tor browser bundle can be downloaded and used to take advantage of that technology,
with a separate version available for Android smartphones. Type of organisation The Tor Project is a US 501 (c)( 3) nonprofit dedicated to research, development,
by encrypting and routing communications through many different Internet servers. Subsequently Tor has been developed by the US University MIT and by the California Internet rights watchdog the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organisations
Advancements in Tor's core technologies including real-time voice and video over the Tor network, improving usability, security and anonymity,
and you connect to your employer's computers to check or send mail, you can inadvertently reveal your national origin
Open source: The Tor software itself is open source and free for anyone to download and use.
Enhancing collaboration and engagement: DSI network effect The strength of the Tor network relies on being able to relay traffic through a large network of routers owned by a global network of volunteers.
*Open Knowledge Organisation Name Ushahidi Short description Ushahidi is a nonprofit tech company that specializes in developing free and open source software for the collection, visualisation and interactive mapping of information.
Some of its product offerings such as Crowdmap enable users to operate outside of traditional communication barriers to potentially monitor elections, map crisis information or curate local resources.
The current team (of 22 full-time staff) is comprised of individuals with a wide span of experience ranging from human rights 208 work to software development.
The main services provided by Ushahidi are three free software products that enable social activism and public accountability, through crowdsourcing of information from citizen observers by mobile phones or the Internet.
Swiftriver is an open source platform that aims to democratize access to tools for filtering & making sense of real-time information Crowdmap:
There is also evidence that the volunteer geo-location services offered by the UHP core team were useful for SAR efforts,
a free open source software that can be used to distribute and collect information via text messages.
USG staff cited outdated computers, browsers as well as Internet communication security policy as significant obstacles to accessing the UHP website and data streams.
More than 878,000 of Community Members Worldwide (as of 30/10/13) Organisation Name Citizen Science Alliance Short description The Citizen Science Alliance is a collaboration of scientists, software developers and educators,
software developers and educators primarily coming from universities and public institutions. 214 History and mission Zooniverse grew from the original Galaxy Zoo project first launched in July 2007.
Unlike many early Internet-based citizen science projects (such as SETI@home which used spare computer processing power to analyse data, known as volunteer computing,
Some of the most important data is in forms that computers still can't process,
with the shift to an open source development model (as of February 2013) it is hoped that a community of volunteer developers will be able to assist in the localisation support of the site (translating the content into other languages) thereby having a positive impact on the outreach of the Zooniverse projects.
Running a core API that serves many projects relies very much upon the maintenance and health of that application.
the number of servers they're running can be scaled back to a minimal level(‘automagically'on Amazon web services).
and they're pretty much all open source. They're generally still bespoke applications each time but share common code for talking to Ouroboros.
In addition to this, the decision February 2013 to start making Zooniverse officially open source has allowed for new avenues for collaboration to be pursued other than the analysis of data.
While Zooniverse had made not the move to open source a priority (because behind the scenes they had been willing to share their coding with anyone who had approached them often talking them through the thought process that led them to design our software in a particular way) the decision to move to an entirely open source paradigm was made
so as to broaden the tools available to enable people to start projects of their own. This open source development model allows a community of developers to flag any bugs to the Zooniverse developers;
to contribute towards the creation of new projects; but also to assist in the site's localisation support (translating sites into multiple languages.
Your Priorities Meiraha Communia Open Knowledge Foundation P2p Foundation mysociety Open Hardware Safecast Raspberry Pi Fairphone Fablab Amsterdam Iot Council Arduino
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